Just a few days after the exciting Indian Wells between Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro the Miami Open will start in Key Biscayne on Wednesday. The Miami Open will be held for the last time at Crandon Park before moving to the Miami Dolphins NFL team Stadium in 2019.
The Miami Open Draw ceremony was attended by Tournament Director James Blake and David Goffin.
Federer and Del Potro were drawn into opposite halves of the Main Draw of the Miami Open, the second Masters 1000 event of the year, and could potentially meet in the final in a re-match of Indian Wells.
Federer must reach at least the quarter finals to remain at the top of the ATP Ranking. He lost for the first time in 2018 in the Indian Wells final against Del Potro after 17 consecutive wins, including two titles at the Australian Open and Rotterdam.
The Swiss Maestro will start his title defence in Miami against a qualifier before a potential third round against Fernando Verdasco. The Spaniard lost all his previous head-to-head matches against Federer, but he has recently finished runner-up to Diego Schwartzman in the final in Rio de Janeiro (after beating Dominic Thiem in the quarter final and Fabio Fognini in the semifinal) and defeated reigning ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov at Indian Wells.
Federer could potentially meet Pablo Carreno Busta in the fourth round and either 2017 US Open champion Kevin Anderson or Tomas Berdych in the quarter finals. This half of the draw also features this year’s Australian Open semifinalist Kyle Edmund, this year’s Marseille Open 13 champion Karen Khachanov and last year’s Rome and Montreal champion Alexander Zverev. The German has been drawn in the second quarter of the draw and could face his fellow Next Gen rival Stefanos Tsitsipas or Danil Medvedev in the second round before a possible clash against the winner of the match between last year’s Miami semifinalists Nick Kyrgios and Fabio Fognini.
The upper section of the draw also features Borna Coric, who led by a set and 4-2 in the second set and by a break twice in the third set in the Indian Wells semifinal against Roger Federer last Saturday. The 21-year-old Croatian player could meet last year’s Paris Bercy champion Jack Sock in the third round.
Juan Martin Del Potro has moved up to world number 6 after scoring back-to-back titles in Acapulco and Indian Wells. He saved three match points to defeat Federer in the final in the Californian desert. In the bottom half of the Miami Draw the “Tower of Tandil” will start his Miami campaign against either Yuichi Sugita or Robin Haase before potential matches against Kei Nishikori in the third round and six-time Miami champion Novak Djokovic. The Serbian player lost to Taro Daniel in the second round at Indian Wells in his first tournament since undergoing surgery on his elbow after the Australian Open. Djokovic won 30 of his 31 matches played at Key Biscayne and won this tournament six times.
Del Potro is on a collision course with Grigor Dimitrov or this year’s Indian Wells semifinals Milos Raonic in the quarter finals. The Canadian could face this year’s Rio de Janeiro champion Diego Schwartzman from Argentina.
The bottom half of the draw features this year’s Australian Open finalist Marin Cilic, who could meet David Goffin in the quarter finals. Cilic’s rivals could be 2017 ATP Finals runner-up Andrey Rublev and John Isner. Goffin could face Feliciano Lopez and either Australian Open semifinalist and Indian Wells quarter finalist Hyeon Chung or Dubai champion Roberto Bautista Agut.
